Insanity's Grasp
by Delirious Daydream
Summary: Based loosely off of chapter seven of 'An Oddity of Sorts': It was supposed to be a simple mission. But things get complicated when a witch is involved, and this one seems to have a specific role in mind for Kid... Rated T. Warnings inside. Features Insane!Kid. Pairings undecided.


**This is a multi-chapter fic based off of chapter seven of 'An Oddity of Sorts'. You don't have to read that before reading this, though, as the two aren't entirely related. I hope you all enjoy!**

**This fic could possibly contain language, violence, and dark humor. It will definitely contain a ton of madness.**

**I don't own Soul Eater or any of its characters.**

"Kid, how much further is this abandoned laboratory?"

"Not too much further, Liz. I want you and Patty to transform and remain in your weapon forms when we find it, though."

The trio of Death the Kid and his weapon partners, Liz and Patty Thompson, were on a special assignment that had them traversing the famed Amazon located in South America. They had been walking down the foliage-obscured path in a single file line for the past couple hours, their plane having landed in Brazil some hours before that. The sisters were growing tired quickly, though, and Liz was especially eager to finish the assignment as soon as possible. Patty was also constantly complaining about the forest's humidity, so one could guess that she was on the same page as her sister.

"Kiddo, my feet are startin' to _hurt!"_ Patty whined, trailing along behind him. "And I'm soooo hooooootttt!"

Liz brought up the rear, checking behind her occasionally because she could _swear_ some wild cat was stalking them. When she turned around again, she thought she saw a flicker of amber eyes, which caused her to let out a pathetic whimper.

"It shouldn't be too much further, girls. Father said that the lab would be approximately two hundred sixty-eight kilometers down the Amazon River," Kid reassured, checking a make-shift map printed specifically for the trip.

"How did Shibusen manage to find this lab anyway? And why are we investigating it?" Liz questioned skeptically. As usual, she had to _ask_ Kid for the details concerning their latest assignment. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't tell them anything.

"All right, I'll explain. Long ago, a tribe of witches lived in the Amazon, incorporating the natural resources found in the rainforest within their potions and spells. Their herbal magic was considered very dangerous, since the natural toxins used in them had the capability of killing other witches. It was rumored that one witch in particular betrayed this tribe and wiped them all out after developing a particularly dangerous mixture for her magic. She was known as the witch Calisto."

"_Was?_"

"Meaning she no longer lives; her soul was extinguished over a century ago."

"Then why are we here?"

"There was an anonymous tip-off from a resident in Brazil. She claimed that several people have been disappearing as of late, and that when the bodies turned up large traces of poison were discovered in their systems. Father had come to the conclusion that this is most likely a Kishin-egg imitating the witch Calisto's use of the Amazonian plants. The lab is where we're likely to find it, since it should contain whatever toxins were used on the victims."

"...Oh."

"MONKEYS~!" Patty squealed suddenly, bouncing in place as she waved her arms wildly. The abrupt high pitch of the blonde's voice caused Kid to stumble forward and smack face-first into a tree. He whirled around to glare at her, a bruise already evident on his face.

"Damn it, Patty! Don't do that!" He lectured with a growl. Patty gave a childish pout, looking up into the canopy of the forest.

"But the monkeys..."

The only evidence of anything having been up in the trees where Patty indicated was the faintest rustling of leaves. Kid pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Who cares about the monkeys?! Unless they are _perfectly_ symmetrical, then we are not gonna stop again for anything!"

"I find it kinda weird that we actually didn't hear the monkeys..." Liz mumbled, glancing around suspiciously. The weapon was still half-expecting to meet a pair of wild amber eyes coupled with a maw full of sharp teeth.

Kid paused. Now that Liz had brought it up, besides the sounds of the Amazon's rushing water and their own footsteps, _there wasn't another single noise_. No monkeys chattered, no wildcats yowled, no birds called...it was beginning to get somewhat eerie. The young shinigami looked up into the thick foliage overhead, wanting to get another glance at Patty's 'monkeys', but saw nothing. Whatever had been up there was long gone.

"Kid? Did I say something?" Liz asked, having seen the expression on her meister's face go from agitated to contemplative. He snapped from his thoughts and shook his head.

"Let's just keep going," Kid told the two, already beginning to continue down the path. Patty bounced along merrily behind him, imitating some animal sounds, while Liz followed cautiously.

* * *

><p>Without the use of the map, it's a safe bet to say that the three would have never found the well-hidden path that led to the lab. It had taken another full hour since the 'monkey incident' to come so far, seeing as how they got sidetracked along the way; Kid hadn't been lying when he'd said that he would only stop for something perfectly symmetrical, which in this case happened to be some type of butterfly. The only reason they'd still made it was because Patty accidentally stepped on the insect after it landed on some colorful flower.<p>

Either way, the trio found themselves standing just outside the entrance to an underground cavern. Liz eyed the darkness beyond apprehensively, already beginning to visibly shiver.

"Are you sure, like totally a hundred percent sure, that the lab is down there?" Liz squeaked, inwardly praying that the answer would be 'no'.

"Of course I'm sure. Why else would I lead us all the way into the Amazon?"

"...Just checking," Liz sighed in defeat.

"Ooh, it sure looks dark in there~" Patty murmured, leaning forward to peek inside. She would have fallen down the steep incline had Liz not been there to catch her by the waist.

"Alright, girls, weapon forms," Kid instructed, holding out his hands. With a chorus of 'Yeah' and 'Okay!', the two blondes disappeared in flash of pink light to be replaced by identical silver pistols.

With his weapons held securely in his hands, Kid launched himself forward down the tunnel's entrance. He landed smoothly on his feet, glancing up at the fading light of day as darkness surrounded him. Being a shinigami, he was much more adept at seeing in dimly lit or even pitch black places, so his eyes adjusted to the change in light rather quickly.

_It seems cold down here, _Liz noted from their resonance link.

"Yeah, it is. Like I said before, I want you two to stay in your weapon forms for your own personal safety. It's likely there are some creatures dwelling down here that you wouldn't be able to avoid otherwise."

_'Kay~, _Patty chorused.

_Yeah, okay._

From what Kid could see, the cavern was a wide expanse of stone ground and walls, stalactites steadily dripping water from the cave ceiling. To his right was some sort of sluggish underground stream, and to his left was a wall of jagged stone carved from the water dripping overhead. He walked along the natural corridor of the underground, carefully avoiding the various stalagmites that rose from the ground. Kid continued forward until he came to wide open space.

Here, the ceilings were taller and the air was _much_ cooler. The sluggish stream flowed a bit faster, too, disappearing down a side tunnel.

_Which way now, Kid? _Liz asked. Kid frowned, tucking the pistols into his pockets as he consulted the map.

"Looks as though we need to keep following the river, based upon what this map is telling me..." Kid murmured, holding the paper up closer to his eyes.

When Kid glanced back up, he noticed a dim glow to the right side of the cave. _What could that be?_

Using his Soul Perception, Kid sensed that there was a human soul just ahead, and it seemed incredibly weak.

"Looks like another victim..." Kid noted grimly.

_Is there a chance we could save them?_ Patty asked.

"Yeah, we can at least prevent the Kishin egg from finishing them off."

With that in mind, Kid took off toward the the light, determined to save the victim before it was too late. It wasn't long until the shinigami found himself in another vast space within the underground tunnel, a wall-torch being the source of weak lighting.

"Hello?" Kid called, glancing around. He heard a stifled cough from the back corner, and turning around he could see that a woman sat hunched over on the floor.

"Please," She gasped, "D-Don't kill me."

"We are not going to hurt you," Kid assured. He tossed Liz and Patty behind him, and the two reverted back to their human forms in a brilliant pink flash.

"Yeah! We're gonna save ya!" Patty added.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Liz asked, kneeling by the woman's side.

The woman appeared to be in her late twenties, with richly tanned skin and dark wavy hair. She wore a tattered cloak that reached to her knees, but she had the hood pulled up so one was unable to see her eyes. She also wore no shoes, and it appeared that she'd been attacked judging by the scratches along her legs.

"Yes...I-I lost my son to some horrible monster. I wanted to save him, but...I was too late!" The woman explained, her voice cracking towards the end.

"How awful!" Liz cried.

"Don't worry, lady! We'll kill the bad guy!" Patty declared. The woman blinked, her expression doubtful.

"You three?"

"Yes, we were sent by my father from Shibusen to deal with this Kishin egg," Kid explained, "and we can have you escorted to the nearest hospital. You'll be alright."

"Oh, _obrigado, menino!_ Death is so kind..."

"It's no problem. Liz, Patty, I need you two to stay with this young woman while I contact Father," Kid said, turning to his weapons.

"M'kay~"

"Yeah, alright."

Kid left the three to find more room to summon his father's image. He'd only been walking down the cave's corridor for a couple of minutes when he found an ancient-looking stone door. Upon further investigation, he found that beyond it was a lab stocked with various plants and mixtures. The witch Calisto's lab.

"Looks like I found it...but there aren't any traces of a Kishin-egg having been here," Kid muttered to himself.

It was true. Being a shinigami, Kid was more tuned in with the madness contained within a corrupted soul, so he was usually able to sense a Kishin-egg long before he saw it. However, there was no indication whatsoever that a corrupted being was in the area. No trace of madness. At all.

Pondering this discovery, Kid looked through an assortment of beakers and vials, most of which containing toxic fluid, from what he could tell. There was one small vial in particular that caught his attention, its contents being that of a fine, red-tinted powder. Holding the glass between his fingers, Kid saw that the vial was newly labeled, but in a cryptic language he recognized to be of Witch-descent.

"This label was made recently...by a witch," Kid realized. That settled it. There was no Kishin-egg to be hunted. But there was something more sinister at work, Kid knew. Another thought hit him.

"Liz and Patty!" He exclaimed. He'd left them alone with some stranger...whom they conveniently met in the cavern...claiming her son was killed by an enemy that didn't exist.

"If there is no corrupted soul to be collected, then that means...that woman was never attacked."

**This is only the opening chapter. Insanity is sure to come, and the story will also get better. Also, I'm not sure of any pairings yet, so if you guys have one in mind, please suggest it. Whichever I get the most votes for will most likely be featured in the story.**

**Oh, and the language spoken, if you didn't already know, is Portuguese, since it's the official language in Brazil. What the woman said translates to 'thank you, boy', at least according to my translator...Yeah, I'm not a native speaker, so if I get something wrong, please tell me.**

**Sooo...review?**


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